Politicians Are More Like Apes Than They Realize, Study Suggests

Politicians can change their voice when talking to people of different status — an attribute that provides proof to the Darwinian theory of evolution.

People have pointed out that Donald Trump talks like a 5-year-old. Now, a new study suggests our favorite GOP presidential candidates — not to mention other politicians — also talk like apes.

A research study, conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, on the voices of four presidential candidates — Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Carly Fiorina — found they change the tone of their voices when speaking to people of different social status.

In a casual environment — like non-political late night shows — the politicians spoke in the same way they do with their family members. But once the conversation is directed towards the masses, their voices would adopt a sing-song quality. And among people of similar social status or ones they consider peers — such as Clinton addressing the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women — politicians will take on deeper tones.

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Dr. Rosario Signorello, who worked on the project, says similar attributes have been seen in other animals as well, where a deep voice is seen as a sign of “speaker with dominance.”

“This vocal profile seems to reflect leaders’ use of vocalizations to display dominance while addressing speakers of the same social status,” Signorello explained. “They use voice to convey their authoritarian charisma."

He is now observing chimpanzees to see if their research holds water.

“We're going to record primates such as chimps and see how the vocal pattern of the established leader changes, acoustically speaking, and how an individual's vocal behavior changes as soon as the individual takes or wants to take over the leadership,” Signorello said.

Previous studies have also drawn comparisons between mankind and animals. They both use body language to convey dominance and power, like George Bush’s “gorilla walk” and Jeb Bush standing on his tiptoes to look taller than Donald Trump.